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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24593071">A Different Monster</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorJacklyn/pseuds/DoctorJacklyn'>DoctorJacklyn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Durarara!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cause ive never used this site before, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, F/M, Fluff, How Do I Tag, Original Character(s), Romance, Swearing, i guess</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:48:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,992</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24593071</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorJacklyn/pseuds/DoctorJacklyn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Main story takes place sometime after Izaya Orihara had been released from the hospital after the stabbing incident. It doesn't follow Durarara canon after that, as it wouldn't focus on the plot being directed out by me myself and I for the sake of giving my favorite asshole an actual love interest.  </p><p>Yuu Kami was a Monster created by Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, as they accidentally broke her bones in an endurance test, learning that was how Shizuo Heiwajima gained his strength. They wanted to push the limits of human strength, as this was an experiment they had no regard for her mental health. She remained strong mentally, only to finally be freed by circumstances unknown to her until after her escape.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kishitani Shinra/Celty Sturluson, Orihara Izaya/Original Character(s), Orihara Izaya/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. New Beginnings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Monster. A word used more often than not around Yuu. As an experiment of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals she had no rights, no power, no nothing. All she knew was she was not only their product of an accident, but she was forced to become physically strong at an attempt to make her mentally weak. She never saw what happened outside nor did it matter. All that mattered at the current moment was keeping her sanity.</p><p><br/>Yuu happened to have an unusual name, but no remaining family, making her the only descendant of the Kami household to exist. This also made her a kidnaping target, which she quickly learned after being sold off to her torturers. Yuu Kami was only an object of experimentation to these people, one to test the limits of human strength.<br/>That was, until, she was released from her seemingly eternal prison. Her body had become so different inside, yet she looked no different from when she had first arrived. She barely remembered anything about the life outside it had been so long. Yuu appeared to be a completely normal human girl on the outside, minus the red eyes she had obtained from her years at Yagiri Pharm.</p><p><br/>Eventually, after finding her way to an old friend's house, she learned Yagiri Pharmaceuticals was being run out of business for their obscene practices. Her old time “friend” was more of an acquaintance, only because she knew his father. That was how she looked him up in public records in the first place. Shinra Kishitani, the underground doctor, and while she barely knew him, he was all she had.</p><p><br/>Shinra had no obligation to help Yuu whatsoever, but when he had learned what she managed to find her way from, he agreed to help her reground herself in society. The tradeoff, however, was she was obligated to let him perform examinations to understand how her body had been changed from experimentation. Yuu agreed, as she could give detailed explanations on what they did, as he could compare that to the effects from her original doctors notes still on record. She would be living in his apartment, but had to also swear not to freak out when she met his girlfriend. Yuu didn’t really know what that meant until Celty Sturluson had walked through the door. It wasn’t until she had taken off her helmet that Yuu realized how unique Celty truly was, as she was not only beautiful, but some form of fae. She seemed almost unreal with the black smoke forming out of her neck.</p><p><br/>Celty quickly realized her mistake when she caught the eyes of the woman standing in her living room, only in a hospital looking gown. Shinra had finally returned with normal clothes for Yuu, panicking when he realized Celty's panic. While he had said she was his girlfriend, they acted as if they had been married for several years.<br/>Yuu secretly stayed at the Kishitani and Sturluson apartment until she managed to remember who she even was, slowly regaining the ability to communicate outside of short phrases. It was hard at first, but after training to be human again, she eventually could communicate as if she never left society to begin with. Her sense of style was similar to someone Shinra apparently knew, being she enjoyed wearing all black and then a black hoodie atop it. This was only the beginning of her new life, as no one truly knew what was going to happen once she finally stepped outside.</p><p><br/>Since she had loved anime, Shinra suggested she meet a group he knew through a friend from school. Almost instantly, Erika and Walker became some of her closest friends. They had the right amount of creativity and weirdness to make her smile. The group of four friends all ended up being told exactly what had happened to her, agreeing to help her become a person again.</p><p><br/>Eventually, she not only got her own source of income by programming and hacking freelance, she also had her own apartment in Ikebukero. Yuu’s life made a complete turnaround with the help of Shinra and her group of Van Friends as she titled them. She still allowed Shinra to perform exams on her every so often, not only because that meant free doctor checkups without needing formal records, but also because it was the least she could do for the help he gave her.</p><p> </p><p>
  <br/>
  <em>Then, she made the mistake of interacting with an Infamous Izaya Orihara.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. If Only She Could Avoid Him Forever</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm still pretty unsure how to use ao3 so bare with me while I post here and to Wattpad. I plan on crossposting more often once I get the hang of this.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Almost everything in Ikebukero could be traced in some way to Izaya. Not because he was in control of everything, but because he implanted himself in the city district itself. It may not have been his home, but it was his domain, and Yuu lived in it without him knowing for too long, in his opinion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>An unfamiliar face to him made his interest pique, she wasn’t someone he had seen before, and she was walking around with a group he had known for a long time. This gave him exceptional leeway into introducing himself to her, while also figuring out how he possibly didn’t know everything about his little humans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello, Dotachin~” Izaya knew Kyouhei hated that nickname, especially as Erika and Walker always used it in public.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Izaya, could you pick another time, we’re trying to get a bite to eat.” Kyouhei sighed. He knew exactly why he was here, and so did the rest of the group. Erika and Walker stepped in between Izaya and Yuu, distancing the two as much as two bodies could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I would, but I see you have an unfamiliar face here, my name is Orihara Izaya. What might yours be?” Izaya smirked, trying to look around the two protecting Yuu.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“None of your business.” Yuu responded with the least amount of emotion she could, knowing all the rumors about the man standing before them. There was no way she was going to let him get information from her that easy, especially not while she hadn’t managed to dig up anything on him first. She was a hacker, he was an informant, and that made a lot of interesting information at her disposal. That was only if she could access his computer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Izaya lost his smile, raising an eyebrow and pushing past Erika and Walker’s small barrier of themselves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now, there’s no need to be so rude, I did introduce myself f-” Izaya was cut off by a trash can hitting him directly in the head, falling into Yuu’s arms. Great, now she had both trash and the can in front of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“IZAYAAAA!” A familiar voice rang out through the streets, as Yuu had met Heiwajima through both Celty and Kyouhei multiple times. He had a bad time remembering others, but when she managed to nearly beat him in an arm wrestling contest, he remembered her a bit more than before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She dropped Izaya as fast as he had fallen into her arms, making him whimper out a distorted noise of pain. The Van Group managed to escape from Izaya because of this fight, finally making their way out to dinner together.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Erika and Walker both were talking about a new episode that Yuu hadn’t watched yet, but she already told them she didn’t care about spoilers. It never ruined her interest in actually seeing the episode, plus it gave her background for interpreting it further than the both of them had. Saburo had just received a new Ruri Hijiribe merch, so he was too busy listening to her album to listen to anyone else. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They all ordered separately, but Yuu picked up the bill as a token of gratitude for her friends. The gang tried to refuse, but she paid before they even had a chance to tell the waitress otherwise. She ended up ordering some food to-go anyway, so having one bill made that a lot easier for her takeout.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Saburo dropped her off at her apartment, where she made her way up to her floor. Only this time, instead of other residents or an empty hallway, he was right there. Izaya Orihara, in the flesh, trying to figure out which apartment was hers by the looks of it. She cursed his quick information finding skills, trying to go back into the elevator before he spotted her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead, he managed to rush to the elevator and hold the door open so she couldn’t escape. She groaned, making her way back into the hallway and pushing past Izaya.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you figured out where I lived, which is pretty creepy, but you didn’t figure out which room.” Yuu grumbled, making sure not to give any microexpressions as to which room was hers, standing at the hallway’s end near the window.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, Kami-san, you have such a unique name it was hard to really miss when Shizu-chan yelled at me about touching you~” Izaya grinned, knowing Yuu couldn’t be mad Heiwajima had slipped her name without knowing it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As entertaining as talking to God is, I want your permission to use your first name.” He made his way closer to Yuu, who glared at him from her position.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“On the condition you never come back to my apartment building without my permission, or stalk me, or do anything else weird like you have already done.” Yuu tried to list all the things she could make him promise to, not that there was any guarantee he would agree or follow the promise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Deal, Yuu~chan.” Izaya started to skip away before Yuu could protest the honorific being added to her name. He was so frustrating, but she had managed to track his phone using hers behind her back against the wall. Hopefully he wasn’t about to toss the thing before he got close to his own computer, all she needed was a proper address to start her personal project.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Was It A Date?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is my newest chapter at the moment and not even posted on Wattpad as I just finished it and this browser is still open.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>After successfully obtaining the location of Izaya’s computer, Yuu was able to get around the fact his IP address put him somewhere in Europe. The unfortunate part was the information she could access was all garbage, probably because Izaya was smart enough to not leave important facts on his computer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead of leaving completely empty handed, however, she decided to do the next most logical thing and implement a sort of virus that wasn’t truly harmful to get back at him for showing up in her building like a creep. All the program did was sometimes open random files or close tabs or take control of the cursor occasionally. It would be enough to set off alarm bells, but not enough to create lasting damage if Izaya could just spot where the hole in his system let in this annoyance. The program was lovingly called The F134, pronounced flea, and showed itself in the image of a tiny bug-like creature walking across the screen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The F134 ran its course, but Yuu never really checked to see if it had been removed. She had used a public computer, signed in as someone who made the mistake of not logging out, to implement her bug. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After not getting groceries, Yuu realized she needed to go shopping. Unfortunately she made the mistake of letting someone with a covered face get close enough to whisper without being heard by anyone else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come with me and no one gets hurt.” The man mumbled, in a low voice that had a certain level of demand in it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead of complying, she took her shopping cart and whipped it so hard into the man he went flying back over to the entrance. She made sure to scream that he had threatened and touched her, causing a scene big enough for her to escape without the man being able to identify where she had gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It sucked she wasn’t able to get groceries, but she figured she could do that later and just grab something to eat. It was too much of a hassle finding somewhere else to shop now, and if she was being targeted she needed to get home as quickly as possible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When she had gotten home, there were plenty of people waiting for her outside. She quickly learned her bug had been transferred to a gang leaders computer, well known for using computers to operate their tasks. A certain informant told them exactly who made the program, which only gave Yuu more reason to dislike Izaya. If this was the game they were playing, she wasn’t about to let him win.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, your first mistake is trusting Izaya. I made the program to mess with his computer system, which he managed to send to yours.” Yuu rolled her eyes, figuring an explanation probably wasn’t going to help her case. It really didn’t when one of the members screamed about how she was a lying whore and was going to pay for what she did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their mistake was trying to attack someone who could easily chuck them to the next street over. She made quick work of them, checking their devices to see if there was anything linked to Izaya. One of them was on call before the fight had broken out to an Unknown caller. She called the number, being greeted with a familiar voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello?~” Izaya gave a sing-songy tone to his voice, “Who might this be?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wonder who, it’s almost impossible to figure out.” Yuu responded with the same tone, making sure to match his.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well isn’t it rude to call and not explain who you are?” Izaya had a slight grin that could be heard in his voice now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Isn’t it rude to send a gang after someone who lovingly made a program just for you?” Yuu couldn’t help but roll her eyes, she hated the fact he wanted into her business so much, but that was the nature of Izaya Orihara.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well is this my lovely Yuu-Chan trying to apologise for causing me technical issues? Or is it her declaration of a war against someone she can’t win against?” Izaya tried making it clear she was either neutral or against him, but Yuu took it a step further.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I would ask you to dinner, but my grocery shopping was rudely interrupted by your little game.” Yuu gave a soft tone, acting the part of ‘new friend.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh? Well I’m still free if you want to go out to dinner. I can pay~” Izaya’s tone matched hers, he seemed to have taken the bait. Either that or he had the same goal, get close and learn your enemy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you’re paying I’m more than willing to compromise.. Orihara-sama~” Yuu had paused, thinking if she should use the honorific or not. She decided it matched his jokester tone in using ‘Yuu-chan’ or ‘Shizu-chan.’ Except, now she was feeding into his god complex, which could prove problems down the road.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Meet me at Russia’s Sushi, Yuu-chan~” Izaya had paused before making the declaration and hanging up. Good, Yuu thought, that threw him off enough to make him have to think about his actions.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Since she was already nearby, waiting at Russia’s Sushi wasn’t too labor intensive. She made conversation with the man handing out flyers, who asked if she was waiting on a date. Yuu tried to stifle a laugh, as she knew Simon knew Izaya, and if she said yes there would be a lot of confusion. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead, she said no, she was waiting on a free meal. As if that beckoned him to the scene, Izaya showed up promptly, much to Simon’s surprise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re great at making other people wait, aren’t you?” Yuu grinned, walking toward the entrance with Izaya next to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I don’t have the ability to teleport, Yuu-chan~” Izaya held open the door while </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Simon watched, still surprised, but also probably trying to assess the situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It didn’t take long for Izaya to start asking about Yuu’s skills and past, he made a mention within the enclosed room that he found no record of her within recent times. She sighed, not wanting to explain such details to the man who could sell that information. He kept lightly pushing towards giving him facts about her, but she managed to deflect everything to another topic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here, I have a game for us, how about for every fact you give me about you, you get to ask any question about me and I’ll answer.” Izaya smirked as he watched Yuu’s face flinch. While it could benefit her to know the man she was attempting to wage a war with, she would be giving him just as much if not more to work with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How do I know if you’re telling the truth even?” Yuu managed to come up with a reasonable response. Izaya laughed, which she didn’t really see what was funny, but he did have a pretty nice laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, what about this, we both promise absolutely to tell the truth, but if one finds out the other lied we get one I.O.U. to use however we like.” Izaya seemed to have a mischievous yet excited glint in his eyes, almost childish. Yuu knew it wasn’t as pure with what she knew about Izaya, but she needed to know more about him. This might be the best way to learn.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine, I’ll bite, but I’m not guaranteeing I’ll answer everything.” Yuu leaned back in her seat, watching as Izaya’s grin only grew after she had agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I only said for every answer I get you get a question, so that’s absolutely fine~” Izaya leaned on the table, seeming to close the gap Yuu had put between them. Their food had arrived just as Izaya had decided on the first question. They both let the waitress leave before officially starting their ‘game’ as Izaya had called it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“First question, is Yuu Kami your real name?” Izaya ate a piece of the sushi he had ordered, while Yuu observed his face. He seemed to really enjoy the food he had ordered, with the face he had put on after taking that first bite.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, it’s my weird name I was given at birth. My first question is how much recent information do you know about me?” She asked while taking her bite of food. Yuu had ordered some sushi, but also a soup. She had decided to start with the sushi since the soup still was too hot anyway.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wow you’re eager to figure me out, aren’t you?~ I know your name is Yuu Kami and the last time you went to a doctor on record was several years ago. There is no record beyond that about you other than an apartment that was forfeited due to lack of payment from your then deceased parents. My next question is why you don’t have records.” Izaya continued to eat while Yuu looked a bit shocked, he had fully answered her question. She wondered if this was some kind of mind game before shaking off the wonder part. Of course it was, everything about him was a mind game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That is extremely personal information, but I’ll tell you it’s because I was kidnapped. If that’s a good enough answer, how do you know Kishitani-san?” Yuu didn’t want to give him everything about her kidnapping. It was too personal to give to someone she wanted to wage a war with, especially if he had any connections with the company.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can see that, a pretty young girl without any parents is an easy target. I know him from school, actually. We had a club together, which is how he bugged his way into my life. However, it’s good to know you know him, do you know his little girlfriend?” Izaya was a lot more casual about talking than Yuu was at this point. She had to be careful, while he didn’t. Nothing he was giving her was too much, but if he poked around enough he could get something Yuu didn’t want him to have.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t imagine you were a great kid in school. Sturluson-san is also very kind, as is Kishitani-san, they’ve both been good friends. What are you hoping to get out of this?” Yuu hadn’t really been touching her food while talking, she wasn’t one to talk and eat anyway. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As if that question had caused the universe to get interested in their game, two twin girls burst through the sliding door yelling about needing their brother for something. Yuu didn’t even know Izaya had relatives, let alone twin sisters. They seemed like opposites, one was wearing a gym uniform and the other a regular school uniform. It was a bit odd, but not too out of the ordinary, especially if they were related to Izaya.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then the attention shifted to Yuu, sitting across from Izaya and quietly eating her food as this unfolded. The one named Mairu introduced both of them, immediately asking if she was on a date with Izaya. Just as she was about to answer, Izaya overshadowed her with a loud yes before shooing them out. Mairu didn’t seem to want to leave, but got out to ‘let them enjoy their date.’ Yuu had a look of shock after Izaya had confirmed it was a date, not really knowing what to say.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My sisters are annoying, if I didn’t say that there was no way they would have left.” Izaya had sat back down, closing the door to the restaurant now all looking at their booth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think I want to play that questions game anymore, anyway.” Yuu had grown quiet entirely, the interaction had overwhelmed her entirely. She just kept eating as if it would save her from the situation she had gotten herself in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well it was my turn to answer, so I’ll do that at the very least. I want to know who you are, personally. You’ve already piqued my interest more than the humans I love so dearly.” Izaya took the opportunity to eat while both of them sat in silence, eating what was left.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After their awkward meal was over, Yuu thanked him for paying and tried to walk away. However, he seemed to not only be following her, but not making any kind of effort to make it seem like they weren’t walking together. She stopped walking to turn around. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop following me, I’m going home, it’s not like you don’t already know where I live.” Yuu crossed her arms, making sure they weren’t in the middle of a busy walking area before she spoke to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, am I not allowed to walk my date home?” Izaya teased, knowing he had already made the line fuzzy when he told his siblings they were on a date.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It wasn’t a date, and no, you’re not walking me home.” Yuu started to walk away when Izaya grabbed her shoulder, planting a kiss on her lips before grinning and skipping away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well it was a date now, otherwise it wouldn’t have ended in a kiss! Bye bye Yuu-chan!~” Izaya had skipped maybe about two steps before Yuu took a page out of Shizuo’s book and whipped a trashcan that had been bolted to the pavement at Izaya.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“As if you weren’t getting payback for that.” Yuu laughed back at Izaya, who was getting off the ground and looked astonished. He apparently wasn’t aware she could do that and had only made him more interested. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Although, he didn’t use the regular insults he did with Shizuo, no, she was different from him. Not only had she waited so long before using such strength, but she first had retaliated with wits. Shizuo would have never done that, making her all the more special. Truly worthy of the name Kami if anything in his eyes. They had maintained an awkward eye contact after Yuu realized he wasn’t going to fight her, until her face had become a light pink and she ran off.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Yagiri</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Still haven't fixed the tags, but I've been very into Durarara right now. I figured a new update would be fun.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Messaging became common for Yuu and Izaya to communicate, it turned out better just with Yuu understanding technology more than people. There wasn’t a day when at least one of them sent a message, sometimes it took 23 hours and 59 minutes to keep up a weird game between them. If anyone else had ever looked at their conversations, they would wonder how they kept talking for so long with long gaps. Usually people would drop that kind of discussion and move on, but they both had an attachment to that game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mind you when they weren’t playing games they talked about their day in detail, sometimes down to what each had for breakfast. A lot of unspoken rules went with their online conversations, almost as if they had their own culture between the two. It was only when Erika-san asked to see their conversation (He was listed Izaya-Sama in her phone, as she was always listed at God Yuu-Chan in his whenever he switched phones.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Erika told Yuu straight up this was weird, they either didn’t talk for hours, almost a day, or they didn’t stop talking. Yuu shrugged and said it wasn’t like either of them were very normal, neither was Erika. She stopped listening to Erika when she started talking about shipping them.Yuu wasn’t interested in dating Izaya, or at least she didn’t think so. Something like that didn’t really cross her mind after the trash can smashed into his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually the two met in person again, but hadn’t managed to meet up before Shizuo found Izaya. Just as Yuu was about to cross the street to meet him, Shizuo had found Izaya. She wondered how often this occurred since she didn’t really hear the calling of his name when she was out. Yuu considered Izaya either didn’t visit the city district as often as she thought, or maybe she just couldn’t hear him from her apartment. She groaned, knowing this complicated the matter because she was friends with Shizuo, but wanted to interact with Izaya more. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everything had a give and take situation, which was when she decided to officially try to stop Shizuo. Well, not stop him entirely, just for a temporary amount of time when she wanted to hold Izaya’s attention. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Heiwajima-san! Hey!” Yuu walked closer to the fight, to which both Izaya and Shizuo were drawn to her talking. Yuu kept breaking through Izaya’s worlds away from where he had put them, which was unusual for what he normally did with human beings. She had realized that by now, which also had taken part into why she thought it might work. Shizuo was thrown off just enough to lose focus on Izaya, who escaped, and Yuu apologized. She explained they had plans, but didn’t care if they didn’t have plans. Shizuo, again, was thrown off, but didn’t seem to be angry. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>While Yuu was glad he wasn’t irritated, she questioned why (Shizuo preferred her direct questions) and he explained it wasn’t his business. Especially if she didn’t plan on stopping him from his own business with Izaya other than when they had plans. He trusted her enough at this point. Yuu smiled, having an awkward fistbump with the bartender dressed man before she tried to call Izaya. He was already at the park waiting for her to be done with ‘Shizu-chan.’ </span>
</p><p>
  <span>To make sure Izaya didn’t try to use Yuu as a Shizuo shield, she explained her deal with him upfront. Izaya couldn’t help but laugh at how Yuu had already predicted him. The only one who had tried that was Shinra, which was new to him. It was refreshing considering Shinra hadn’t even visited him in the hospital recently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They managed to spend a few hours just walking around, Yuu learned a lot of the ways to the tops of buildings through Izaya. There wasn’t much for them to talk about at this point, Yuu had shared everything Izaya would have wanted to know. Izaya had shared everything about him personally Yuu would want to know. There wasn’t a way to define their relationship, but they weren’t dating nor just friends. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually Shizuo learned to look for Yuu alongside Izaya before attacking. Not only did it make things easier, but it made it so he could maintain a friendship with Yuu. However, this led to Izaya using Yuu anytime she was around to cover his own ass. Unfortunately for him, Yuu was pretty good at giving Shizuo the impression of ‘he isn’t with me right now.’ Of course, that also came at a cost of dealing with Izaya’s whining about how mean she was later.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yuu-chan!~” Izaya unexpectedly showed up when she was just about to part from the Van Gang. Erika pushed her towards him, which didn’t work very well considering her strength. The point had been gotten across enough that it hadn’t mattered, which Kyouhei had suggested heavily against after hearing about Erika’s ‘new ship.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They both had started talking like usual before some group of people claimed they were going to exact revenge from Izaya. Yuu rolled her eyes, like that was even going to happen. Yuu wouldn’t put herself on the line, but if Izaya wanted to get away he would. That interrupted their conversation so she was again forced to decide if she was going to interfere or not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was funnier to watch them think they could do something so she just waited. When Izaya had figured out she wasn’t going to do anything since they hadn’t thrown a fist, he started taunting them until he could dodge people. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a few punches one of them grabbed Yuu, threatening she would be in trouble. One swift kick later the guy was crippled on the ground grabbing his broken leg. Yuu glared at them all, except Izaya of course. They were all frozen before one of them ran at Yuu screaming something she hadn’t bothered to listen to, but it was met by a dodge that landed his hit on one of the buddies he had. After being distracted, Izaya ran away like the typical fights he got into. Yuu usually got the last hit in, but Izaya liked to cause chaos then remove himself. Which was a big reason they were different, upon the amount of odd lineups they did, there was still a difference between them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then when they both met back up to Izaya’s building, Namie walked in from another room she was in. As in Namie Yagiri. Of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where were you? I’m trying to pick up my check.” Namie seemed upset with him, they knew each other. Rage boiled Yuu’s stomach before she looked absolutely pissed that Namie existed. Especially in a space she considered somewhere she liked to be, the couches were comfortable to read in. Izaya had picked up her tension but had ignored it, probably wanting to cause more drama anyway. She had never given him specific information on her capture, just that she had a long history of abuse by doctors. Not that he probably didn’t have the information if Namie had been working for him. She soothed her temper, just before there would be violence, letting Izaya finish his business. Until Namie raised a question about Yuu, she wouldn’t give Izaya the satisfaction nor would she let Namie know until she was nice and uncomfortable. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The entire time, Izaya took his time writing a check while Yuu stared at her down. Namie originally tried to be rude to get the information; it wasn’t welcome here. It became too much rather quickly for her, she was probably used to having her way. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Listen I’m not stealing your boyfriend, I have a love of my life already.” Namie rolled her eyes. That sent Yuu into a laughing fit before she got in Namie’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no, I know you want to fuck your brother. No, you’re the reason I actually have the ability to crush your skull with my fingers. Experiment 1037, remember? You personally met me to decide how much blood would be required at bare minimum for survival.” Yuu’s voice was loud enough to let Izaya know exactly what was happening, but soft enough to not hurt Namie’s ears. Her eyes widened in fear before she backed up and fell onto Izaya’s desk. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At this point, Izaya lost it, started laughing even harder than Yuu had before her deadpan minispeech. He had finished the check and pushed it under Namie’s hand, who didn’t take it. She was too busy staring in fear. She was the one who had been known to call her a Monster the most, and knew it. She had done it under the idea that’s exactly how Shizuo was treated. Little did she realize, the environment is what made Shizuo who he was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shizo had a brother, a family, even a life outside of it. Yuu was in her late teenage years, not given even enough nutrients to thrive, only to survive. That affects your healing process and your mental status. She was set up to fail from the start, by not accounting for all details.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I... didn’t think they would just release you all.” Was all Namie managed to speak, not even refuting wanting to bang her brother. Yuu continued to stand there, waiting for the ex-chief of the exact place she was tortured in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They didn’t. Everyone was forced to be studied for possible therapy. I passed because I can pretend I’m fine, like I always did to avoid any of you poking me anymore with drugs.” Yuu had never been as ecstatic as she was, not only was Namie under her thumb, she had someone not stopping her. He was the only possible reason this encounter could be trouble, but he just watched in amazement. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Namie looked at Izaya before looking back at Yuu, slowly grabbing the check and making her way towards the door. All Yuu had to do was grin when she walked by for a quick flinch of fear. Not even physically moving was powerful enough because Namie knew it all. Just a number alone led to easy data as soon as Izaya retrieved the information. A full report on the years she was kept made for an interesting read, Yuu asked Izaya to print the reports, earning another smirk. Izaya laughed whenever Yuu knew what he was doing, it amused him. Usually that was a problem, but since Yuu wasn’t an enemy he considered it fun.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A quick print later the two went through the information together. Yuu eventually confessed the report would be given to Shinra, who had been her doctor for however long she had been out for. Izaya stated that’s where he would have gone had he not been bleeding out after being stabbed, but when you’re unconscious the hospital is where you’ll end up. Yuu agreed the idea of a legal doctor record wasn’t something she enjoyed considering where she came from. Shinra was a lot safer, and she got to be around Celty more anyway. They were both cute together most of the time, she enjoyed the soft feeling from the apartment. Not that any of this extra part was mentioned, but that is the nature of her conversations with Izaya.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It became late enough she could give the documents to Celty before she worked to hand off to Shinra. That was, if she hadn’t been called on business to Izaya’s place. He apparently was already planning to stir trouble tonight, so Celty was a good way of doing so. Celty asked if it was another suicide or something worse. He laughed, saying that was an old trick. Yuu questioned if the person had died or not, she wasn’t fond of people, but it did make her curious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As soon as Celty left Yuu posed the questions, which in fact she didn’t die. She tried to kill Izaya in the hospital. Yuu just ended up grinning, Izaya had given her a reason to live.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, are you laughing at my misery?” Izaya softly questioned, Yuu couldn’t help but laugh. She hadn’t laughed as much in this one encounter than she had in years. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, the fact YOU managed to make a woman not want to die so much she wants you dead is just so... You!” Yuu wiped a tear that had formed during her laughing fit. Izaya tried to hide the shock in his face, someone else was enjoying his... Hobby.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would you like to know more stories in exchange for your own?” Izaya leaned over his desk, still seated. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yuu took a seat and prepared for their long conversation until sunrise.</span>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Couch</h2></a>
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  <span>Yuu slept on the couch since she hadn’t wanted to make her way home. She woke up relatively early for having spent the night awake, but regardless Izaya was awake with a mug next to him. He was reading a newspaper across from her, like some kind of old man in the morning. She threw a playing tile into the mug, it made it in his coffee. He looked vaguely annoyed and set down the mug.</span>
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  <span>“Are you done being a freeloader yet” Izaya grinned while Yuu yawned, sitting up from the couch. It stuck to her skin without a blanket, she hadn’t slept well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not until I get breakfast.” She stood up and went to find food to possibly feed herself and Izaya with.</span>
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  <span>“What, are you my maid now?” Izaya folded his paper, smiling while getting up to bother her more. She opened a cabinet to a hot pot setup for houses, condensed for easy use. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you have anything for this thing? We could just eat it for breakfast.” Yuu inspected the pot and portable stove, trying to figure out why the most hated man would have one of these. After a lack of response from Izaya she looked up from where it was stored.</span>
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  <span>“That... isn’t for breakfast or this season?” Izaya questioned, but Yuu was already busy pulling things out.</span>
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  <span>“Isn’t what I asked. You’d have leftovers and could eat those later if you really don’t want to participate.” Yuu was speaking over the clanking of the equipment being pulled out. She had decided even if he didn’t have anything, she would go to a nearby supermarket. It had been years since she had the luxury of a hot pot, being stuck in medical prison for so long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...No, but there’s a store nearby?” Izaya was dumbfounded and didn’t know how to feel about the situation. Someone he just had let into his life was taking over without him interfering, but he didn’t really want to. Yuu shrugged, setting up anyway with the plan to go there. They would be open by now, probably with fresh meat for the day ahead of them if they were a local place. Just before heading out Izaya had quickly come with her, she just figured he would want to add things he wanted and she’d pay for what she wanted. Nope. He paid for everything, even the drink she had added to have with the food. Something about what was happening made both of them awkwardly silent, Yuu couldn’t place why. Even after they had returned to start cooking the broth for their odd breakfast. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Never really thought I’d be having a two person hot pot before noon, but I also guess I didn’t expect to be in your office having breakfast.” Yuu cooked her vegetables first, they always took longer to cook if they weren’t leafy greens. Izaya had started doing the same when Yuu started dipping the meat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well you’re also sitting in my space I have never shared with someone like this.” Izaya noted, which made sense. The people he talked to were few and far inbetween, even then they never interacted for long. Unless it was his sisters, but that was different from this. They weren’t related, just in some weird friend limbo neither of them could place. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just like when they were interrupted, they had spent most of the meal in silence until Izaya received a call. It was just noon and Shinra was on the other end, questioning how he managed to find the information on Yuu. Celty neglected to mention Yuu was at his place entirely, which made it even weirder when Yuu started talking. Shinra was baffled that the number was what it took to find, that her name wasn’t even included. Everything matched what Yuu had been able to tell him, to a T. Izaya had said the most interesting fact was that Namie was considered so intelligent, but she neglected to include the environment in creating the type of Monster Shizuo was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In reality she made Yuu-chan just a strong traumatized adult rather than a rampaging Monster Shizuo became.” Izaya laughed at his own comment. Yuu hadn’t noticed but tears started falling down her face, and as soon as Izaya noticed he hung up the phone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guess you don’t like your friends being-” Izaya ended up getting tackled by the mass that was Yuu’s body, her head crying into his shoulder. They sat in silence, her crying into his shoulder while he lays on the floor while trying to figure out what to do. This wasn’t a situation either knew what to do with, eventually Yuu could stop crying and get off Izaya.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, you said I wasn’t a Monster.” She wiped her puffy eyes. “I didn’t even realize I could cry over something so stupid.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stupid? No.” Izaya hadn’t put much together in terms of what to do, but even such a small sentiment was accepted immediately. They both sat on the same side of the hot pot until the heat forced them to keep a distance from each other. She ended up sleeping on his couch again, but with a blanket to separate her skin from the couch. Yuu had complained about the sticking before going to bed, being able to comfortably sleep in an air conditioned room.</span>
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